To be a Tenno
by Obardo
Summary: Very little language will be included, no mature themes. Could be considered graphic in violence. This story will follow the progression of the game closely. Beginning with Volt, it will expand out as we discover more Tenno blah blah blah. Please enjoy.
1. Prologue

Awakening

Darkness.

 _For generations you've slept, no purpose. No call to wake you._

The overgrown Orokin derelict ship was being disturbed.

 _But now, something has risen from the ruins of the Old War._

The Volt Warframe within the cryochamber was being rebooted. Awakened.

 _The Grineer. Swallowing colonies whole, their clones flood the system from a hidden, toxic womb. The twin queens have sent their most beloved commander, Vor, on an urgent mission. To protect the twisted crusade they have begun. To transform the scattered colonies into an empire._

Power was surging through the cryochamber. The long dead systems rebooting once again. A light humming filled the ship.

 _To see that the Tenno, hidden and asleep, would never awaken._

The humming was louder. A light pulse with each passing second cast the cryochamber in an eerie light, as it was the only thing that remained in a constant glow. A flash of light, and a tear in the room appeared, glowing softly yellow, then it expanded and widened to reveal a dozen grineer, and at their head, Captain Vor, with his glowing void key upon his chest.

 _Wake up, Tenno._

They chamber opened, and the Volt fell onto the floor in a heap. Sparks traced along its forearms. The bands where his energy was stored glowed purple with the electricity that had been kept within for so long.

"I see the Lotus has tried to wake you, pity she's too late. You're my prize now…Tenno." Pain arched through the Volt but it was still waking up from an uncountable number of years asleep. The left calf, something had been attached. No time now. Survival. How to survive.

A voice, HER voice. _What has he done to you? I can't lose another Tenno. I am surging your Warframes power systems._ POWER. The ability to destroy. The pain in its calf was an ant bite, it was the storm. The Volt was awake.


	2. Chapter 1

To be a Tenno

Instinct took over where memory failed. The Volt allowed the power out, it flowed from the bands into the Volts hands, the power pushed it off the ground, the Volt pulled in on itself, bringing the power to its chest, violently forcing it into a denser and denser sphere of pure electricity, and finally, when there was no way to contain it anymore, simply let go. The lightning arced out of the Volt like a miniature nuclear blast, the power of it splayed out the Volt as it made its way to every soldier in the room and stopped the heart of whoever it touched. Vor and two fellow Grineer managed to get behind a last second energy shield.

Vor turned and ran, smiling because he knew, no matter the deaths of a few men, he had captured the Tenno. His two comrades stayed and unloaded their magazines on the Volt. Bullets bounced of it like pellets and it turned to them. Walking slowly over to where they are, they continued to shoot to no avail; this Warframe had so much power in its suit that the bullets simply vaporized when they got too close to the power bands.

When they finally wasted the last bullet in their clips, the Volt stopped. It looked at both of them and then stuck out its hand and blasted them with purple, deadly lighting, frying them instantly. It turned to the right and saw its old weapons piled up in the corner. Not enough room to take it all. It grabbed the sword, inscribed on its blade was the word _Skana_ and a symbol it recognized but couldn't remember. It brushed away the staff. Next it took the Kunai along with a holster that hooked on a place on the suits leg. Finally it grabbed the bow and a quiver of arrows that glowed softly and matched the color of the suit. The bow was an early draft of a model that was planned to come out later, as such it wasn't as powerful as it could be but it would have to do.

Finally happy with all the weapons, the Volt jumped through the portal and entered a forest. Terra, Earth was its more common name. Infected trees were everywhere; they were what made the planet less habitable than it had once been. There was only one direction to go so the Volt carried on.

 _The extraction ship should be here soon. Make your way to the other end of this compound, our maps show it is very linear so you shouldn't have trouble making your way there._

Convenient. The Volt manipulated the energy within it to boost itself along, cutting down any grineer within reach and the electricity surging from its back, took care of any who were unlucky enough to dodge the Skana's blade. A ship flew by overhead in the direction the Volt was going, it seemed familiar, like an early model of the ships the Tenno flew in at their founding. The Volt forced more energy into moving forward and found itself going blindingly fast along the metal walkway.

Suddenly a piercing screech reached the Volt, a blast of yellow filled the sky and the ship had a gaping hole where its engines were. Captain Vor stood in the middle of the clearing holding up his now questionable void key and smiling at the Volt as the ship came down behind him. _You're not ready to take on Vor. Your old ship is a little farther down. See if it is still operational._

Alarms. "My decrepit heart is pounding; this one is stronger than the rest." The doors locked. _There is a console nearby, hack it, and move on._ The process was simple. Apparently keeping a long dead ship from escaping with its long asleep operator was not high on their list.

The Volt continued on into a giant cavern with a vine covered hole where the ceiling would be with plenty of room for a ship that, speaking of which, was on a platform in the center of the cavern. The metal that made up the exterior of the ship was covered with a second layer of old dead vines which on top of them was another layer of stronger, thicker green vines, the result of many lifetimes of inactivity. Two grineer were patrolling the area, but with two well placed areas in the back of the head they were down with no one outside knowing what happened.

 _There it is, your old Liset. Disengage the suppression systems so we can restart the ship. Simply bypass the security on the panel._ This panel was easier than the last one. Immediately the ship engine turned over and the vines that covered the thrusters were blown off and hit the side of the cavern with a slap.

A loud, angry robotic voice came over loudspeakers hidden somewhere underneath the vines. "Quit touching me you- are my sensors deceiving me? Operator? Is that you?" Faint lines broke through the vines, an obvious attempt at scanning to confirm what the sensors apparently already had discovered, but the vines made it impossible.

 _The Grineer heard the engine, reinforcements are on their way, Ship Cephalon we require immediate extraction._ Her voice sang in the Volts ear as well as, apparently, the ship. "The Operator is in danger? It will take me a few moments to cycle the engines!" This also came through muffled sound speakers.

Suddenly the entrance to the cavern overflowed with grineer troopers, some with assault rifles, others with sniper rifles, and even more streaming towards the Volt with only a butchers knife. Immediately, the volt went to work, arrows loosed one after another punching through one or two grineer at a time to take out those behind them. The little mk-1 Paris did its work beautifully, the wave was stemmed for the time, the Volt could hear the engines get louder, even though somewhere in the interior there were supposed to be things to muffle the engines to silence, apparently decades or centuries of neglect made those parts no longer work. Imagine that.

The Volt ran out of arrows just as the engine went silent. "All flight systems restored," a massive wave of static and the ship continued, "Let's get the he- evacuate the premises." Odd, the Volt would have to check on that, not now. Later. The Liset lifted off the ground and kept its thrusters at just enough power to hover above the Tenno. A door rotated open underneath the craft and extremely strong magnets pulled the Tenno into the perfectly molded door. The door swung shut, and the Volt went inside of the Liset as they escaped the grineer, and Terra.


	3. Chapter 2

Revenge

Finally the thrusters began to weaken, the acceleration slowed and the ship stayed in a slow orbit around Terra with occasional maneuvering to dodge long dead junk that was stuck in the High Earth Orbit, some of them looked ancient, pre-Orokin even. "Operator, you have returned. Do you remember your Ordis, the ships Cephalon? Sadly, I have been stripped of all core components. Order me to self-destruct, I will understand." The Volt was startled by the sudden outburst from loudspeakers hidden in the ship.

 _The grineer are ravenous for Orokin technology. They likely stripped your ship to its most basic capabilities. Check the orbiter compartment for any spare system parts._ The Voltwalked to the back and found a trap door in the floor, opened it and found a black chip, full of tiny wiring that hopefully would restore something to Ordis. On the top in old letters it said 'Terra Mapping'. _That is probably a very outdated map of Terra; it shows the most prominent colonies at the time right until you went into cryosleep. Many colonies no longer exist with the Orokin gone, but the grineer repurposed many of them too. Place it into the Navigation System and it will help direct you._

The Volt went to the Navigation System and found button behind the panel, pressing it opened up a large circular port system with dozens of areas for chips similar to the one the Volt found to be placed. "Oh, the desecration, those savages took everything! Of all the heinous, bast- more ship components are missing than originally thought, Operator." If Cephalons had blood pressure, Ordis' would be through the roof. Something would really have to be done about its language though.

 _You should go to the Mantle, security is weak there and other Tenno have claimed that many low grade Orokin technologies are stored there._ The Volt set navigation for the Mantle and immediately the thrusters kicked on. "Navigation to the Mantle started. Let's go kick some grineer a- retrieve ship components."

After circling the planet a few times, the Liset finally began to descend. The colony was once a large mining colony as shown by the giant ravines throughout the area which were once heavily mined for Terra's unusual abundance of strange minerals. The Liset floated over a less overgrown factory on the outskirt of the still operational part of the colony and the Volt walked over the door in the floor of the ship. It was on the backside of the ship down below the arsenal. The Volt strapped its weapons on, laid down into the mold facing the ceiling, and felt the magnets power on. The door then flipped to show the roof of the factory and the magnets let go.

The Volt landed in a roll and began to move immediately. _The storage area is reported to be in the center of the colony. The colony has been mapped out recently by a recon Liset. I have mapped out a route to get to the parts you'll need. Go._ A recon Liset? Interesting. The Volt put a minimal amount of power into propelling itself forward. To go too fast and trip alarms would not make the mission easy.

A very loud voice came to the Volt. Not through any headset or speakers, but into the mind of the Volt itself. The Ascaris is working. I can see into the shadows of your mind. For the first time since the initial escape of Terra, the Volt remembered the thing attached to its calf. It looked down to see it had already grown in the space of the few hours since it had been placed. Immediately an arc of pain was felt through the Volt. It dulled to become a throbbing bite into the calf of the Warframe, the pain was just enough to be noticed.

The Volt pushed the pain out of its mind and continued forward, checking the navigation chart on its arm every once in awhile. The Volt felt free for the time. There weren't any grineer patrols for the next few miles and the terrain was perfect to exercise the power the suit gave it. The power that propelled the Volt forward also could be directed below the Volt, to give extra power to jumps. A simple leap could take the Volt several hundred feet forward and a few dozen feet into the air. With the speed the Volt was going at, and a little manipulation to keep the Volt pushed towards the walls, wall runs became normal habits to the Volt whenever it entered a hallway. The infected trees were everywhere on this part of Terra too, the farther the Volt went into the colony, however, the more sparse they became. The sparser they became, the more slowly the Volt went, until it chanced upon the first patrol.

A single grineer walking within earshot of a floating radio that relayed any news to the lone patrol, the Volt put an arrow into the throat of the grineer and began again, without any energy to propel itself along now. The Volt moved into a large factory and found a dozen grineer sitting and talking in their guttural way. A simple energy propelled jump would get the Volt onto a higher walkway and quietly across the building, but it craved blood.

The Volt walked into the large factory floor room and loudly unsheathed the _Skana._ The grineer looked taken aback but recovered quickly and began to open fire. It put energy into its arms and blocked the bullets with the sword, a few got through but nothing managed to penetrate the shield placed over its armor. It jumped into the air and came down on a grineer, slicing it in two. A second grineer next to it was removed of its head. The Volt sent out a bolt of electricity and shocked three other grineer and followed up by throwing a set of six kunai into the eyes of grineer that were preparing to unload another magazine. The final grineer was at a console trying to set off the alarms but the Volt dropped the _Skana_ and pulled out its bow and an arrow and pinned the grineer to the wall by its head.

A moment passed and the Volt decided the gunfire wasn't heard by anyone else and began to move on. A glint of metal caught the Volts eye. It turned to see a capsule with a set of orders in the grineer language inside, Ordis could probably translate it later. The Volt hooked the capsule to the hook on the left legs thigh hook, mentally marking the idea of some way to carry a larger amount of capsules for future missions.

Going on the bloodlust continued and its track record of leaving with no alarms grew, it became eager to hurry up and find the storage compartments. At least two hundred grineer in various amounts of parts later and the Volt made it to a giant clearing. What seemed like it would be a perfect place for a colony market forum back in the day was now simply stacks of storage units and barrels full of scraps that looked nothing like the things the grineer made. _Search around try to find a Mod System, Armory System, or any navigation segments that we can use. They should say Mod V.2.31 somewhere on them, that is the model of your Liset. Yours was among the last models made before the end of the Old War._

The Volt got to work, smashing open storage units to find a needle in a field of haystacks. Dozens of Armory Systems for different Liset models. An unnecessary amount of Mod V.1.0 parts made the Volt hate that it was lucky enough to be owner of such a higher tech version. Finally it came across a Communication System for its Liset that was in one piece, a few odd wires hanging out of it counted as one piece. An Armory System was found in a few pieces in a metal capsule, maybe if the Volt could reverse engineer it…?

 _A quiet alarm was just set off, I have intercepted a distress call to nearby colonies and already I have found three incoming ships full of grineer marines. You need to get to extraction._ Almost grateful for whoever set off the alarm and ended the horrible search for parts, the Volt sprinted to the marked clearing on its navigation chart, a capsule in each hand, holding the two parts it found, and a capsule bouncing on its leg. The pop of gunfire followed it across the colony, sometimes the louder snap of a sniper followed by the muffled thump as it hit the ground behind the Volt.

It didn't take but a minute to find the marked clearing. The Liset was already waiting for the Volt, and the magnets brought the Volt into the door and the Liset. "The Operator has found a segment," more static, "Install it now- Ordis patiently awaits segment installation." Another sign of wear on the Ordis' system, probably should really get that checked.

 _Get communication online, I must see what this Ascaris is doing to your Warframe._ The Volt hurried to install the segment before someone else told it to install the blasted thing. After fiddling with it for a few minutes, the segment seemed to click and a hologram full of messages popped up. Hundreds, thousands of Tenno were communicating to each other. The Volt almost got sentimental until the loudspeakers crackled on, "Systems engaging. I suppose this will do- Ordis is grateful. The Operator can now communicate with other Tenno in the system. The Operator is also able to contact black market scumbags- contact arms dealers."

 _Ordis has an excellent idea. I know of a Corpus defector sympathetic to our cause. He is locked up in a Grineer Gulag. But first, show Ordis the paper you found. Maybe he can tell us what it says._

"Ordis is not a man or woman! Ordis is a cephalon, beyond your insignificant- yes, I can." The Volt placed the paper in view of a scanner and the ship almost made a shuddering sound as it scanned. "This note is a set of orders, to not kill the Operator but try to capture it. It says to bring it to Captain Vor." The Volt perked up at hearing this. Killing Captain Vor had become its mission.

 _Tenno, you are not ready to take Vor yet. Do not get ahead of yourself. Free our corpus friend first, we do not know how long he has yet to live._

The Volt was disappointed by this news. But still bursting at the seams with happiness.

The Tenno were not dead. The Tenno would have revenge.


	4. Chapter 3

A Question on Morals

Ordis brought the Liset to a ravine in the Mariana Sector, which was apparently just a prison for those that mildly upset someone within the grineer society. The door opened and Volt fell out onto a metal walkway. Rain drizzled and clinked against the armor when the Liset flew back into Orbit. _Our arms dealer is named Darvo. He is being held in prison block D-34. It is across the factory complex._

A beep alerted the Volt to its map that showed where Darvo was being held. It checked the path and started along, jumping from one walkway to another and often having to boost itself with the energy in its arm bands. _How many grineer slaves died building this facility?_ The Volt looked around truly for the first time at this comment. The walkways were attached to the ravines walls from sometimes hundreds of feet up. A few tracks for transports led from a landing strip, and crossed the ravine to enter the factory. All of this was insanely built in a true show of indifference to those who had to make it.

For the first time since waking up the Volt replied with simply two words, "A lot." The voice shocked himself, he was in fact male. One doesn't realize how strange it is to discover that until it happens. A deep voice, very deep actually. They had a slight accent to them. The T was sharply pronounced, as if the Volt had really focused on finishing the word.

After making it three quarters of the way to the factory doors, the walkway ended. The remnants of a walkway glinted far below in many pieces, an attack long ago, or maybe simply a rockslide. The Volt didn't care. It saw a transport moving along a track nearby, two grineer were on it as well as a dozen boxes all roughly the same size as the guards. The Volt jumped to the ravine wall, propelled its way up the side, and _snapped_ itself onto the wall, a small stream of energy keeping itself in place. When the transport came into leaping distance, the Volt cut the energy stream off, and leapt into the open air.

A thud lightly rocked the transport and the two guards looked to see a kunai enter each of their eye sockets, falling down dead. The Volt nudged the two with its boot and sent them to join their long dead slaves in the bottom of the cavern. The factory doors opened, two doors that could let in three Lisets side by side enter comfortably, to allow the transport and its cargo in. As they slowly opened the Volt pulled out its Mk-1 Paris and notched an arrow, more than three dozen grineer were waiting for this transport, no one could know it was there. _Tenno, do not release that arrow. Underneath the transport loading area there is a ventilation system, enter that, and do not get caught._

The Volt stood up, put the arrow back in its quiver, and snapped the bow into place on its back. A quick move of acrobatics had it on the bottom of the transport and _snapped_ onto the underside of it with energy. A minute passed and the transport entered the cargo bay and the Volt dropped down the ventilation shaft without a sound.

 _It is imperative that you are not seen, the grineer are not beyond executing all the prisoners in here to keep us from what we want. We don't need that bloodshed on our hands._ The Vents ran straight through the factory with branches going to different rooms. _Block D is the third branch to the right. Once you are inside, make to kill all three wardens before releasing the prisoner. If you don't they will sound the alarm._

The Volt took the third branch and scaled the wall into Block D. As soon as it popped out of the vents a grineer Warden turned around and looked directly at the Volt. It raised a machine gun and fired off some thirty rounds in a single second. The Volt slammed it with electricity, momentarily frying the grineer's power suit systems. Just enough time to snap its neck and throw it down the ventilation shaft.

BEEP BEEP BEEP! _Alarms! The execution sequence will be started. Find cell 34 and get Darvo!_ The Volt scanned the cells and found that none of the numbers made sense. It had to resort to counting each cell and got to 34 half way down the block. A energy propelled leap took the Volt to the cell door and a few less than delicate fist slams into the console and the doors opened.

On the other side was a very unattractive corpus. His hat seemed like a bulge from his forehead, highlighted by greasy dreadlocks that hung down past his chest. And a tattoo of two lines ran from his lips down to his neck. "I owe you for this one Tenno. I will get my entourage to meet us in orbit once we're clear from this mess."

 _Good work, extraction is ready. Remember, your success depends on getting out with Darvo…Alive._ The Volt handed Darvo its Kunai, rather regretfully, and checked the map to see where the extraction point was. Surprise surprise it was back through the factory where it had come from.

Pain. Sharp pain. The Ascaris was needling its way up the Volts leg, and with it came the voice of Captain Vor. The Lotus must be desperate to send you fetching greedy fools from the Corpus. The Volt fell to one knee. A yellow light floated into its vision. _Don't let Vor distract you. Overload your frame so you can go forward._ The Volt placed a shield around Darvo, and then floated into the air, and released a blast of energy through the factory. The whole place got dark, no electronics worked at all. The only light was the purple electricity that sparked through console boards and lighting fixtures.

Immediately the pain eased and the Volt released the shield from Darvo. "Oh man, I don't want to make you angry man. Just remember I am your friend." The Volt ignored the Corpus trader and ran back to the ventilation shaft. As soon as he landed, a flurry of bullets came slamming into him. He placed a shield of pure electricity in front of him and Darvo and meditated on what to do next. The doors were all forcibly locked because of the Overload. The turret at the far end was not going to run out of bullets before they ran out of body parts to get hit.

A long lost memory came to the forefront of its mind. It grabbed the _Skana_ and held it out in front of itself. It put all of its remaining energy into its arms and hands and got to work. At a sprint the Volt charged the turret blocking every bullet that came at it and Darvo who followed behind. They reached the turret and surprised grineer soldier behind the turret and a quick kunai throw from Darvo killed the operator.

It entered into the room with the transport to find the room had doubled in grineer troops all pointing their guns at the boxes that they were transporting earlier. _Tenno. Don't move. I believe I know what is inside of those boxes._ The Volt was confused but did as it was told. One of the grineer smiled, then said some joke in their coarse tongue and the rest of them laughed roughly. At the Volts continued confusion the joker opened up one of the boxes to reveal a cryochamber. Inside was a suit the Volt didn't recognize. _The Zanuka project has succeeded? This is bad news. Tenno, you have to try to rescue those Warframes._

"How the hell do we do that woman? We can't outrun bullets. This one might get close to it though. He's damn fast."

 _The cryochambers were supposed to be able to handle highly charged blasts. But these might have their shields released. If that is true then the glass won't do anything to prevent these Tennos deaths. It's your choice Tenno. Stay and fight for them or leave._ The latter option didn't seem like a possibility. But how to save these Warframes?

The Volt finally made a decision. It held out its hands and placed a shield in front of the two nearest chambers. The grineer opened fire. Ten cryochambers shattered, the Tenno within dead before being awakened. The final two were protected by the shields and the Volt went to work. The _Skana_ sliced through grineer like butter. Never had the Volt felt rage like this, the whole suit sparked in reaction to its anger, sometimes blasting out and frying grineer. Thirty seconds later the last soldier fell to the ground with a thud.

 _Ship Cephalon, extraction has been moved to the factory cargo bay. Retrieve the Volt, and our two packages now._ Not even a second later the Liset was there, hovering just over the two cryochambers. The Volt and Darvo hooked them onto the ship and then a second, smaller ship came for Darvo. The Volt allowed the ships magnets to pull it into the door and they flew away into the sky and into deep earth orbit.


End file.
